MILESBURG — It may seem strange to celebrate one year since flash flooding ravaged Eagle Valley Personal Care Home. For staff and its owners, however, their swift reaction is a bragging point when it comes to a night that, for weeks, turned their world upside down.
Two weeks after water started coming in the doors during the evening of Oct. 20, 2016, when 8 to 10 inches of rain fell in parts of Eagle Valley in just about four hours, all residents were back at the personal care home in Milesburg.
One year later, Eagle Valley Personal Care home welcomed residents, their families and the public into the chapel to mark the event with a program, “The Night Remembered.”
On the evening of the rains, dinner had been all cleaned up and residents were in bed when the rain was falling in the area. Shortly before 11 p.m., as staff noticed water coming in the doors, the decision was made to evacuate the personal care home to Bald Eagle Area High School.
There were places in Milesburg where the water was so deep people could not get through, yet staff who were not on their shifts, emergency responders and community helpers all came to help get the 51 care home residents into vehicles and to the high school, said Steve Stem, who owns the facility with his wife, Lisa.
By 1 a.m., all residents were safely at the high school. It would be another two hours until the county declared a state of emergency. Staff managed to collect emergency equipment, supplies, blankets and water.
Throughout the night, the staff and helpers worked to notify the families of residents, as well as start to move all their personal items into the upper floors of the building. Florence Shirk-Palmer, activities coordinator and receptionist, said they had to carefully tag all the valuables and keep the makeshift storage area off limits in order to keep possessions safe.
The American Red Cross and Salvation Army arrived at the school by 5 a.m. to provide bedding and food stations, and received help from the Bald Eagle Area staff.
When the sun came up the next day and the water had mostly receded, the work already was beginning to get the care home back into shape.
Mammoth Restoration, who the Stems credit for giving priority to the care home, oversaw the cleanup efforts.
Rich Olsen, mitigation manager for Mammoth, said he had not seen anything like the October flash flooding in Centre County.
He said the water was not terribly high, but it did ruin the carpets throughout the building and the drywall and insulation near the floor had to be removed and replaced.
“It was a mad house,” said Charlie Allegretto, a mitigation specialist, about the cleanup efforts in the following days. “We had 10 to 12 of our people. They had all of their people and we were working as one unit. I thought they did a phenomenal job.”
Lisa Stem said that even though some of the staff members had water in their basements, they still dropped what they were doing and rushed over the personal care home to help on the night of the rains.
“I’ll cherish them forever and I’ll cherish all the residents forever,” she said.
By 1 p.m., the day after floods, the residents were moved to other facilities or home with family members. There were 38 residents who were able to move back in within 24 hours. On Nov. 4, 2016, residents in the A wing began moving back into their rooms, and on Nov. 6 the final members moved back in.
